40. Dan Brown - The DaVinci Code

Once again, famed symbologist Robert Langdon (who was first introduced in Angels & Demons) has gotten himself into a bind.  While in Paris to give a lecture, he is informed of the murder of the curator of the Louvre and that Langdon is a suspect in the killing even though he never met the man!  With the help of Sophie Neveu, the curator's granddaughter, Langdon discovers that the curator had been the head of the Priory of Scion, a secret society created to protect and hide the Holy Grail.  With the curator's death, the location of the Grail would've been lost forever, except for the fact that he left clues in for the form of puzzles for Neveu and Langdon right before he died.  It is up to Langdon and Neveu to solve these puzzles before they are arrested or killed by an agent of the Opus Dei, an ultraconservative sect of the Catholic Church.

This book was worth all of the hipe and the many weeks on the best sellers list.  As a historian and art lover, I was enjoying all the ties that Brown makes between Da Vinci's work and the Priory of Scion, and even his dabbling into the ancient religion of Goddess worship.  The story itself kept me on the edge of my seat with all the plot twists that took place.  It's an easy and enjoyable read that I highly recommend.